Tik's Irregulars
by squeege222
Summary: Inspired by the brutal murder of two Jedi Padawans, Smuggler Tik Vraal decides to rally his fellow smugglers into forming a fighter squadron and terrorizing the newly formed Galactic Empire until it finally collapses.


Tik Vraal was on the streets of Coruscant when Order 66 was enacted. He heard about Anakin Skywalker and the 501st's storming of the Jedi temple through hushed whispers of two Wookie merchants as he walked towards his client's hangar on level 1211 of the city-wide planet. "Good riddance to those damn meddlesome monks" he thought as he reached the base of his client's building. At the base of the three level high structure, there was a stand cut into the steel walls with an old Iktotchi male missing his left horn selling Nuna meat. "Greetings my friend, a delivery from Mon Cala comes for you from orbit" he said.

The Iktotchi nodded his head and knocked on the wall once, revealing a door which opened with a hiss. As Tik walked through the door, he pulled a small remote from his pocket and began to speak to it. "R5, trace my coordinates and land in the top level hanger" he said softly to the small, silver remote.

In the skies over Coruscant, a stolen U-Wing transport ship screamed towards the surface where the Corellian human rode a lift to meet his client, spice dealer/addict named Ertktor Vi. The droid gracefully flew the craft with it's s-foils closed from the astromech socket mounted to the roof of the craft. The droid's eyes illuminated it's bright green head as he turned to look at the commotion on the ground of Level 1220. He saw two Vurks and a human running from a large squad of clone troopers. The droid laughed to himself about their plight, unaware of the events which transpired in the Jedi Temple two hours before.

Tik was greeted by two IG assassin droids and a Togruta man whose hands, head tentacles, and mouth were all stained bright orange with spice. "Tik Vraal my friend!" he said as Tik shook his spice crusted hand.

"You are a very lucky man for you see, you said yesterday's code, today's word was "I bring you an army from Geonosis."

"That means Kyyrk might finally be warming up to me" Tik said.

"Remember, you did cost the man his horn, he probably just wanted the bonus in his paycheck that comes from a new shipment of spice." Ertktor responded.

Any further conversation was halted by the humming of the U-Wing as R5 slowly lowered it in amidst the several other ships in the hangar. R5 twirled his head around once and as he did, the doors of the craft came open to reveal eight hover crates filled with spice. In the hull of the craft, two R2 units, both trimmed brown, an R5 trimmed purple, and an R5 unit trimmed brown came to life and shoved the crates out of the bay. The lifts at the base of the crate whined as they tried to prevent the crates from breaking on the floor as they slowly decelerated. However, the whine of these engines was drowned out by the screaming and subsequent crash of one of the droids, R2-G4 falling out of the ship. Tik turned from the scene and shook his head. As Ertktor reached into his pockets to pull out Tik's payment of 500,000 Republic Credits, three robed figures lept through the hangar doors and ran toward Ertktor. The IG droids which flanked him turned toward the intruders and simultaneously produced a "halt!" from there robotic sounding vocabulators. Several Kel Dor, Togruta, and human mercenaries who had been standing around the hangar soon encircled them as Ertktor spoke. "What business have you here! This is a very secretive, uh... operation here" said Ertktor, fearing his business may be compromised.

The two Vurks spoke to each other before they and their human companions pulled out their lightsabers and presented them to Ertktor. The human said desperately "please help us sir, the clones have turned on all of us and we don't know what to do."

The Vurks spoke in their native tongue which Tik knew and translated as "they say they're Jedi Padawans and will serve you in any way possible if you get them off world."

Before Ertktor could question the Padawans on how they knew of his operation they were interrupted by more unwanted guests. Approximately one hundred clone rocket troopers flew in from the hangar door on the front wall and hovered near the assembled mass of people. "You are harboring Jedi Padawans who are traitors to the Galactic Empire, surrender them now and prepare to die" a clone with red markings said.

Before Ertktor could turn them over in hopes of a bounty, the two Vurks leapt into the air and sliced through five of the troopers each. The clones quickly killed the human Jedi and began to shoot at the two Vurks. Tik turned to his U-Wing and said "droids, attack plan B, everyone else get down!"

The R5 droid in control of the ship began to "laugh" wildly as the S-Foils of the U-Wing snapped back, killing ten of the clones in the process to reveal two laser cannons on the tips of the wing. The fallen astromech righted itself and the three others leapt much more gracefully from the ship and revealed smaller laser cannons from their domes. Every person and droid began mowing down the clones who largely ignored them in their quest to kill the last remaining Vurk. Ertktor and Tik both took cover behind one of the Z-95 Headhunters parked in the hangar as the clones turned on his band of mercenaries. "Why'd you have to do it Tik?" he said as laser fire flew over them.

Tik picked up a blaster which had been flung under the Headhunter by a Togruta who had been killed trying to flee. Before he peaked out from behind his cover, guns at the ready, said "did I really have a choice?"

The lift behind them hissed open as Kyyrk came out backed by two more IG droids and holding a blaster minigun. Tik ducked back behind the Headhunter and ran to behind one of his spice crates. He joined the Vurk padawan and two Twi'leks who joined the fray from the speakeasy in the room adjacent to the hangar. He watched Kyyrk get ready to move out from behind the Headhunter when the clone captain threw a thermal detonator behind the ship. Kyyrk was able to move in time but Ertktor only stared before he was wiped from existence. Enough clones had been eliminated to allow Tik to peak out from behind the spice and when he did, he saw a sky of white clad men with flames shooting forth from their backs. Tik spoke into his remote, saying "R5, land and let on the other droids."

Tik stood and shouted "board a ship and follow us if you want to live!"

As the other astromechs boarded the U-Wing, the approaching jet troopers sent in a stream of laser bolts, cutting Tik off from his ship. As he looked around for a vacant ship, he saw a Gungan pilot get gunned down as he climbed into his Y-Wing. "Perfect" he said.

Kyyrk put down a stream of fire as he strafed his way to his own ship, a Z-95 Headhunter with added hyperdrive and astromech socket. As bullets pounded the hull of the craft and what was once an R3 droid in the socket, Tik brought the ship to life with a loud whistle from it's two engines. He fiddled with the onboard comset until he reached the frequency of his U-Wing. "R5, hold off the clones until all crafts take flight then rendezvous at the eastern part of the planet" he said. Tik's newly acquired ship charged out of the hangar and above the cloud of jetpack troopers as did every other ship, except the U-Wing which R5 flew directly through the cloud with S-foils out to maximize damage. As the ships climbed through the levels of Coruscant, the clones managed to destroy a single Y-Wing which crashed into a Headhunter next to it, followed by the walls of a senator's apartment building. As Tik and his new army climbed through the atmosphere, he could not shake the image of the human Padawan being brutally murdered by those clones. He looked to be a Corellian like himself, which inspired in him an urge to avenge this boy. Any previous thoughts he had that the Republic would be staying the same way it was were quickly dispelled by this display of brutality. He knew his world was going to change and he knew he needed to change it back. "R2-G4, do we have any stowaways?" he said.

The clumsy little droid beeped about the Vurk and two Twi'leks which had ended up on board to which Tik responded "bring out the chairs onboard, I believe our smuggling days are over boys."

The eight ship strong fleet flew in formation as Tik said "Ladies and gentlemen, the display you saw put on by the Grand Army of the Republic today was not an isolated one. I fear that what has happened today shall become the norm across the galaxy. As I sit here I am watching a transmission of the Chancellor of the Republic declare himself Grand Emperor. Now ask yourself, is this going to make our smuggling livelihood any easier?"

There was a resounding cry of "no!" from the comset as Tik continued "The only way we can guarantee a continuation of our lifestyle is by reinstated the old government. Now who's with me?"

The comms channel was flooded with resounded cries of agreement. Tik looked around at the fleet he had assembled. It was three Y-Wings, a U-Wing, a Naboo N-1 Starfighter, two Z-95 Headhunters and a Corellian freighter. There was eight ships for twenty people and eleven astromech droids. "I think we need to pay a visit to some friends of mine on Tatooine" Tik said. The eight ships plotted their navigation computers for Tatooine before disappearing into Hyperspace.


End file.
